Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 1899, Vol. 21
Among the genera reserved for study by Dr. Riley was Acronycta, which had interested him for years because of the differences noted among the larvae. Certain studies of structural characters were made by Mr. Theodore Pergande, of the Division of Entomology, and by myself, and under Dr. Riley's supervision most of the adults and all the obtainable larvae were figured in colors. It was intended that the work should make Bulletin No. 7 of the Division, to be published in 1885, and seven chromolithographic plates were actually printed. So many life histories were incomplete, however, and so much difficulty was encountered in obtaining missing species, that publication was postponed from time to time until, in 1891, Bulletin No. 7 was finally devoted to another theme, and the matter was allowed to rest for the time being. In 1889 I resigned my place in Washington to accept that now occupied by me in New Jersey, and all plans for combined mono graphic work by Dr. Riley and myself were abandoned.
Dr. Riley retired from the Department of Agriculture in 1894 and devoted himself to work in the U. S. National Museum intending to take up and complete those lines of scientific study which were perforce abandoned through the burden of routine work in the Department. His untimely death prevented this; and in arranging his affairs his widow very kindly turned over to me the entire mass of papers and notes, together with all the original drawings and sketches referring to Acronycta.
On the occasion of my Visit to the British Museum in 1891 I did not see the entire collection of Acronycta, partly because they were not then all included with the true Noctuidae by Mr. Butler, partly because, my time being limited, I relied upon the comparisons made by Dr. Riley.
The manuscript turned over to me contained the notes on the British Museum specimens made by Dr. Riley, and all the breeding notes and records accumulated for many years in the U. S. Department of Agri culture. There was no descriptive matter, however, and not even an outline of a proposed systematic division. All the systematic matter, therefore, is original.
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